News Life Sciences From the attic to the lab. Syzygy again successful in securing funds for startup ‘hillbilly biotech’ firm
From the attic to the lab. Syzygy again successful in securing funds for startup ‘hillbilly biotech’ firm
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By Kym Reinstadler | LabWork
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The Syzygy management team was successful in securing funds from various entities helping startups in Michigan. The company credits WMSTI with helping it be lean and not have a lot of overhead. COURTESY PHOTO |
GRAND RAPIDS — Hillbilly biotech no more.
Syzygy Biotech Solutions took home the $100,000 SmartZone prize at the Great Lakes Entrepreneur’s Quest Award held June 9 at Michigan State University. About 130 start-up companies vied for the award.
The prize — funded through the Michigan Pre-Seed Capital Fund — is sufficient to allow the frugal life sciences company to add a sixth paid employee and fund operations through 2011, CEO Barry Nowak told LabWork.
Principals of the company — all native Michiganians — dubbed Syzygy “hillbilly biotech” when they launched in 2008. The name was fitting when the company was operating out of an unfinished attic in a building somewhere between Ann Arbor and Jackson, Nowak said.
In August 2010 Syzygy — in need of wet lab space — relocated to the West Michigan Science & Technology Initiative, which occupies the fifth floor of Grand Valley State University’s Cook-DeVos Center on Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile.
That move was made possible by a $100,000 state loan through the Company Formation and Growth Fund, which was established in 2007 to nurture emergent life sciences businesses.
“We certainly would not be in business as vigorously as we are today without WMSTI,” said Nowak, 44. “This environment is like nitrogen for growing biotech businesses.”
WMSTI has allowed Syzygy to avoid $500,000 in equipment purchases and focus on fine-tuning automation of processes, Nowak said.
The result is collapsing the time it typically takes to bring a new product on the market by a year or more.
Syzygy landed 26 clients, including Gift of Life, Michigan’s organ and tissue donation program, in its first four months.
Sales remain low, but plans to double the sales force and number of distributors this summer could ramp up demand for production fast, Nowak said.
The company produces biological reagents, or proteins, for use in DNA amplification, which is a fundamental component of DNA testing.
These reagents are used to detect diseases, establish paternity, match organ donors with patients in need of transplants, and analyze forensic evidence from crime scenes.
They were also used to detect evidence of Asian Carp in the Great Lakes from water samples long before a fish was ever found, Nowak said.
PCI reagents were a $5 billion market in the United States in 2010, but business specialists anticipate they will be an $8 billion market by 2014, Nowak said.
Syzygy’s goal is to produce these proteins at roughly half the cost of other labs, enabling research institutions and hospitals to conduct more studies and tests without breaking the bank.
Currently, Syzygy’s major competitors are in China and Korea, but their products are more likely to include contaminants that undermine voracity and quality, Nowak said.
A founding principle of Syzygy — a Greek word meaning alignment of three celestial bodies — is to keep quality biotech firms in the United States, preferably Michigan, Nowak said. Syzygy’s principals form a “nerd herd” who are intent on making biotech a living, breathing entity of West Michigan’s business culture.
The company plans to hire top GVSU students in molecular biology. Syzygy also intends to provide reagents free of charge to area teachers willing to expose K-12 students to biotech careers.
Nowak founded the company with Chris Eusebi and Blane Hansknecht, buddies he made 20 years ago while studying at Michigan State University.
The trio was confident they possessed the scientific and technological knowledge essential to start a biotech company. But they also knew they lacked the business and sales experience necessary for their company to grow and thrive, Nowak said.
So, they brought on Brent Nowak, Barry’s brother, a mechanical engineer whose specialty is robotics, and William Ziehler, a renowned biologist with previous experience with a start-up company. lw
